Facebook as a Genre

Facebook can be seen as a well-received addition to the increasingly digital, “real-time” culture in which we live
As many Facebook users live in large cities where life seems to unfold at an accelerated pace, Facebook has emerged as an effective tool for maintaining social ties, keeping family and friends updated on the [...]

Review of last class

Mass audiences vs. niche audiences:

link between these 2
although we speak of smaller markets, the mass audience hasn’t disappeared (e.g. superbowl)

(fragmentation of the audience?)

We don’t have fragmentation that is final and absolute. There are smaller markets, but still larger markets (see [...]

Bridging previous weeks & this week

Dominant ideology & decoding
Polysemic responses to texts
Hegemony as an open, fluid series of negotiations
Texts & contexts

Culture

Not simply the products made by particular artists
[how the audience is located within specific cultural situations]
[not just the culture of the media, but the culture of the audiences as well—and how the 2 come together]
[it's [...]

Encoding-Decoding

Interpretation vs effects

Not an either/or.
We’re all affected by meaning. It’s just difficult to find them.
The way in which we find these effects is by talking to people who are making these meanings

The role of meaning-making

So how do we interpret meanings?

Meanings are received and made sense of via CODES
Meanings are not force fed to us; but [...]

Introduction to Audience Studies

Historically, audiences had to be present. i.e. in a speech
The printing press and radio allowed for messages to be consumed by many people without their physical presence
During a play, audiences have an interactive relationship with performers. You can see their responses, i.e. their laughter or disgust.
You have the option of auditing something, [...]